Green Options

It’s already March, which means it is time to get into the garden! One of my greatest challenges when I first became a parent was to figure out how to garden with young children.

At first, I tried to rush out during their naps and frantically weed, plant, and harvest. Then, I realized I was robbing my children of the incredible experience of learning about plants and growing their own food.

Previously, I wrote about 10 Tips for Organic Gardening with Children. Recently, I discovered Molly Dannenmaier’s book A Child’s Garden: 60 Ideas to Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children. Wow, 60 ideas…that beats my ten!

The photographs in A Child’s Garden are incredibly beautiful and inspiring! Featured in the photos are innovative examples of how to create special natural places for your children in the garden, such as mazes, paths, out-of-the-ordinary sandboxes, child-friendly ponds, peepholes, etc.

There’s a plethora of wonderful children’s books on gardening, but there is always room for more! What’s This? A Seed’s Story by Caroline Mockford is a charming story about a child’s discovery of a seed and the cycle of plant life. I was lucky enough to have my six-year-old daughter read this book to me for her homework.

What’s This? A Seed’s Story begins with a bird discovering a seed one winter morning. I anticipated the bird would eat the seed, then deposit its droppings somewhere and begin the plant’s life; however, my prediction was wrong. Instead, a little girl, along with her marmalade cat, discovered it and “planted the seed carefully in a corner of her garden.” My daughter has her own garden, as I believe every child should, so I was happy to see the main character in this book also has her own garden bed. (Fellow writer Beth recently wrote about her child’s birthday garden, but back to our story…)